


Even the Lion Gets Ill

by serendipityxxi



Category: Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-28
Updated: 2012-02-28
Packaged: 2017-10-31 20:34:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/348110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serendipityxxi/pseuds/serendipityxxi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt - Little Women ; Jo/Laurie ; Jo gets scarlet fever instead of Beth</p>
            </blockquote>





	Even the Lion Gets Ill

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Disclaimed.

Jo was sure there was no one as miserable as she was in the entire world that afternoon. She was sick, uncomfortable and everyone was intent on reminding her of all the things she was missing. She’d exploded at Amy who had drawn her a picture of a boat that Jo could not row, Meg had almost killed her with the stench of roses from the Lawrence’s green house and even Beth had abandoned her after Jo’s last outburst with a very reproachful look before she followed Amy and Meg out. Marmee was at work, Hannah was making dinner which would have smelled delicious if Jo had been able to smell anything. Not that Jo would be able to eat it either. She wasn’t hungry and her throat ached fiercely. Sore throat or no though Jo would give her right arm for a glass of water right now.

 She weakly reached for the bell the girls had given her to ring when she wanted something. Her fingers would not grasp the silly thing and it slid to the floor in a clatter. Could she have worse luck? She kicked her blankets off petulantly, rolled onto her side intent on getting up but didn't make it even to her elbows. Jo flopped back into her pillows with a shaky moan. It was official she would stay here and die of thirst while everyone had a grand time downstairs.

She lay there, every hot breath panted past her desert dry lips making her feel worse. A chill drifted in from somewhere and Jo shivered. She attempted to reach for the blankets but she had kicked them too far away. Defeated she curled in on herself, pulling the sleeves of her dressing gown as far down as they would go. She shut her eyes and tried to fall asleep, to get away from the torture. There was nothing she could do when she was awake anyway, her throat was too sore to talk, her eyes too weak to read, her fingers too shaky to write or knit or sew or anything useful or fun.

Sleep was fitful at best when it did come and she woke shivering and parched and aching all over. She wondered where everyone was. There came the tuneful sound of a piano from below and Jo pulled her pillow over her head. She lay there feeling cold and sorry for herself and abandoned. So deep was her misery that she didn't hear the door open or the thump of booted feet. The blanket that was wrapped around her shoulders was the first thing that drew her attention that someone had entered the room.

"Jo, what are you doing to yourself?" Laurie clucked as he tucked the edges of the blanket around her shivering frame. Her limbs which had been spare to begin with were positively rail thin now, his hand encircled her forearm easily, index finger touching thumb. He tucked her arm beneath the blanket as well.

"Teddy?" she all but whimpered, had she been in a different frame of mind the tone would have mortified her.

"Good evening, Miss Josephine," he poured her a glass of water from the jug he'd brought with him. He propped her shoulders a little higher and helped her to bring it to her lips. Jo drank and it was like finding an oasis, the cool water soothed her parched, fiery throat. Laurie's cool hands lifted her hair off the back of her hot neck and rolled it into a loose bun as he’d seen her do countless times. Her fingers started to shake too much by the time he was finished. He took the glass from her trembling hands and helped her drink her fill. When the glass was empty Laurie helped her sit up more fully, propping her against the back of the sofa she laid upon.

“You know I heard there was a lion in here,” Laurie teased, “imagine how surprised I am to find a lamb.”

Jo croaked out a laugh. "I'm afraid I'm an even worse patient than you were."

Laurie chuckled, remembering that fateful day.

“Thank you for braving the lion’s den, Teddy,” she told him meekly.

"Why, it's nothing Miss March.” He gave her that incorrigible grin of his that made his dark eyes light up. “Now you just stay right there. I can have this right in two seconds," Laurie echoed her words to him all those months ago. He handed her another glass of water and then set to work, opening her shutters, stacking her books neatly on the end table, sweeping the grate and straightening her blankets. He ended by plumping her pillows and adding another blanket to the pile atop her.

Jo lay all but still, watching as Laurie moved about her sick room fixing things. When he was done the room felt lighter, less dreary and Jo was surprised at just how magical the difference felt. She even felt a bit better herself as she set the glass down on the end table. Laurie came and sat beside her on the settee. He slid an arm around her shoulders, drawing her against him.

"Teddy," she rasped. "You'll get sick," she protested though he was so warm, and it was so very nice being coddled like this.

"Shush, if I were going to get sick I already would have Jo," he stated definitively. "Now, which of these would you like me to read?" he asked, picking up the first book from the stack on the table and looking at her askance. Jo nodded and Teddy cracked the book open.

They read for long hours, Laurie's voice rumbling up from deep within his chest was a comfort to Jo's ears. She found her eyes drooping shut as he read and for the first time in days she felt warm.


End file.
